A/N: FINALLY!!
Chapter 17
September 1st
"You two had better write to us! Daily!" Harry and Mark both smiled with their heads stuck out the compartment window.
"You bet we will, Winry," Mark said cheerfully. "I'll annoy Ed some much he'll write just to shut me up!"
Wendy and the two boys laughed while Linda sighed. "I really am Winry now, aren't I? You're both leaving me behind."
"Come on Linda," Harry reasoned. "We'll be visiting a hell of a lot more than Ed and Al ever did, you can be sure of that. No alternate universes for us."
"Yeah!"
"They're right, Linda. We'll manage to survive without them until Christmas," Wendy reassured her.
"That's right! You are coming to our house for Christmas, right Harry? At least Christmas day."
Harry sighed weakly, and smiled. "I'll do my best," he promised just before the train started to move.
"No! Already?" Linda cried. Wendy sighed sadly at the sound of the whistle. Time for her boys to go already. She wasn't sure if she was proud or angry that they were leaving. They were off to what was possibly the most prestigious school in Britain, but still they were leaving. In any case, she couldn't seem to stop smiling and tears were blurring her vision horribly. As the Evans women watched the scarlet steam engine make its way out of the station, inching at first, but quickly picking up speed, they were not the only teary eyed people on the platform; however, they noticed no one else. And up until the train was out of sight they told themselves they could still see Mark and Harry waving from their window.
"So you spent this summer learning to fight then, Harry?" Neville sat across from Harry and Mark with Ginny, dealing hands for Exploding Snap. The two of them had been subtly drilling their friend about his summer, having apparently deemed all the answers he had given in Diagon Alley insufficient.
"Er…yeah. I felt kind of bad about it though, whenever I came in Yamanako-sensei handed the class over to one of the advanced students to work with me. He says I've gotten decent though."
"Think you could teach us?" Ginny asked, scowling at her cards. "Ron's been refusing to teach me anything Shacklebolt showed him."
"I guess so. I was kind of thinking of going through some of the basics in the DA if we have it again this year."
"Really?" Neville looked up excitedly. "I think restarting is a wonderful idea!"
"Is that that club you did last year?" Mark asked. "Can I join?"
For a moment Harry looked nervous, unsure of whether he really wanted to teach his young friend to fight. He told Wendy on more than one occasion that he would look out for her son, and he didn't think he could take it if he were hurt. On the one hand teaching Mark how to defend himself could do just that. On the other, it might just encourage him to jump into battle, thinking that he was a match for a fully-qualified wizard even at the age of eleven. The boy could go either way, realistically. Was Harry confident enough in him to let him join what was essentially going to be a battle training class?
Eventually he settled on "We'll see" as an answer. Mark was less than pleased, but only pouted and glared at his cards. The other two in the car tried to smile reassuringly at their friend. It didn't help. They didn't understand.
The games of Snap continued on in relative silence broken, only by the occasional explosion and giggle or gasp, until Ron and Hermione entered the compartment.
"Harry where the hell have you been?" Ron asked sitting down next to his friend.
"Ronald!" Hermione scolded.
"What? I have to ask at least once."
The bushy haired girl rolled her eyes and sighed as she took a seat next to Ginny and Neville.
"We agreed not to ask," she said. Ron only shrugged.
"I've been living in London if you must know," Harry said, surprising everyone. Dumbledore was bound to get it out of him by the end of the year anyway, and he really didn't intend on spending all of next summer nervously trying to dodge both Death Eaters and the Order once again. It had made him supremely edgy this past month, and didn't help at all with his nightmares.
"London, Harry? Really! What on Earth were you thinking being so close to Diagon Alley?" Hermione screeched. Neville and Ginny inched towards the window nervously.
"I was thinking 'London is a very large place with a lot of people,' and 'what self-respecting Death Eater is going to go traipsing about muggle London?' and then 'the Potters own a townhouse in London. Really?' and 'nobody's living there' and 'it's probably warded in some way shape or form. Sounds like a good place to stay.'"
"He's got you there, 'Mione," Ginny smirked, while Ron, Neville and Mark chocked on their laughter.
"So you've been lying to me all summer?" the other girl spat.
"Hey! I never told you I wasn't in London. If you came to that conclusion you did it on your own."
Hermione 'hmph'ed and averted her eyes to glare at the door. Harry rolled his eyes.
"Alright! So I mislead you a bit. You know why I was doing that anyway, I don't know why you're so upset about it." She knew damn well why he would have misled her about his whereabouts! They had had quite a few discussions about it over the past month, in fact, and he had been under the impression that she understood what he was doing.
Reluctantly, she sighed and glanced at her raven haired friend, ignoring Ginny's exploding cards. "You're right. I do understand. But it doesn't mean I think it was necessary to say misleading things to me."
Harry nodded absently and grinned apologetically at Neville who had the least amount of information on Harry's summer of the lot of them and who was reshuffling the deck. Ginny was confused, but not nearly so much as the boy next to her.
"So, Ron," Harry drawled with a wider, more mischievous grin at his other friend who was slouching in his seat and sneaking glances at Hermione, "I heard you were getting lessons from Shacklebolt this summer as well."
Suddenly a fair bit more interested in the conversation, Ron sat up and smiled roguishly at the boy smaller boy. "That's right," he said. "And didn't you run off pretty soon after you got started? I guess I'll have to bring you up to speed."
Hermione immediately began to choke and cough thanks to a bit of dust in the air, while Mark chuckled outright, and Neville and Ginny averted their eyes trying desperately not to smile or laugh. Ron didn't seem to notice. Harry smiled gratefully at his freckled friend.
"Really? That'd be great Ron! I bet I've fallen really far behind in the last month." He didn't say it nearly as convincingly as he could have, mostly because he was trying too hard not to laugh, but Ron seemed to buy it.
The other boy was almost half a foot taller than Harry and was a fair bit stronger as well, but Ron Weasley had never been known for his speed or stamina. And Harry must have spent nearly fifteen hours a week with Yamanako-sensei, working non-stop. Occasionally, he was allowed to spar with some of the man's older, more experienced pupils – sometimes more than one at a time. He didn't always win, but he never lost horribly, and he tended to run circles around larger opponents. Harry was going to wipe the floor with Ron.
"No problem, Harry. What's so funny, midget?" he asked, seeing Mark in hysterics, sliding off of his seat and onto the compartment floor.
"Ron!"
"Is he okay, Harry?" The red head turned to his friend, ignoring Hermione's admonishments. Resolutely, Harry bit his cheek and nodded before grabbing the first year up by his bicep and hauling back onto the seat.
"E-Ed," the boy whimpered trying to stop his laughter, "Can I watch?"
Harry bit harder.
He sent a questioning look at Ron, who shrugged in return. With a deep breath Harry turned back to his young friend.
"Sure, Al. And once we're done we can give you a lesson."
Ginny cracked first. Neville followed soon after. The both of them were doubled over themselves, Ginny clutching her stomach for the pain and Neville slapping his knee. Hemrione tried to hide her giggles behind her hand, and continued to bite his cheek. Mark was lost, burying his face in Harry's shoulder and wheezing, shoulders shaking.
Ron didn't get it, but chuckled anyway, absolutely certain that he was missing something.
A/N: It's really short, I know, but I wanted to you guy something. I've hit an awkward patch in the story, and have been spending a lot of time revising previous chapters. I'll post revisions later, but there won't be much serious change. If you want to see some more of Harry's nightmares they would be good to read. In fact, some things that'll come up later might seem really sudden and out of blue unless you do read them, but I'll do my best to make sure that doesn't happen.